Cable and Satellite

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Doctor Who has aired on a number of cable and satellite stations over the years, and this was the only method by which some countries - particularly those in Europe - could view the series on a regular basis.

Although BroaDWcast is primarily an index to the terrestrial broadcasts, it would be remiss not to at least mention (albeit briefly) Doctor Who on satellite and cable channels.

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UNITED STATES and CANADA

Doctor Who aired on at least two (known) major cable channels in the US in the 1980s and 1990s:

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And of course most of the Canadian broadcasts of the series were on cable:

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UK STATIONS

Doctor Who aired on two local UK satellite stations:

  • BSB's Galaxy channel (short-lived run from 1 April 1990 to 29 December 1990)
  • UK Gold (15 year run, from 2 November 1992 to 14 April 2007)

Since neither station transmitted beyond the shores of the UK, they fall outside the remit of BroaDWcast.

However, for detail about these stations we recommend the following websites:

  • BSB – for images of on-screen idents, etc
  • UK GOLD for the full background plus a downloadable schedule of all 15 years worth of airdates and screenings
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UK / EUROPE

SUPER CHANNEL

Super Channel credits for Genesis of the Daleks with Sylvester McCoy title sequence and logo
Listing for Robots of Death, 1 September 1988

Satellite television station Super Channel was launched on 30 January 1987, and broadcast across Europe.


TRANSMISSION

From 24 March 1987, Doctor Who was part of Super Channel's regular schedule, although they were limited to a 16 story / 66 episode package of just the first fourteen Tom Baker storiesRobot to The Deadly Assassin - plus The Robots of Death and Horror of Fang Rock, which were repeated a number of times, either episodically or as omnibus editions.

Some of these omnibuses, such as Genesis of the Daleks, had the Sylvester McCoy opening credits with Tom Baker's face superimposed over McCoys, as well as newly-created story title and writer captions, as illustrated here.

The final episode of Doctor Who to screen on Super Channel was the second airing of part four of Horror of Fang Rock on 6 August 1989.

In 1989, the channel was purchased by NBC. It was later re-branded as NBC Super Channel until 1996. The Europe broadcasts ceased from 20 December 1998.

Super Channel was available in most countries in western Europe. We know for sure that it was accessible in:

(And no doubt many others….)

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BBC PRIME

This station was launched in 1987 as BBC TV Europe. It changed its identity to BBC World Service Television from 11 March 1991, then to BBC Prime from 26 January 1995. BBC Prime was replaced by BBC Entertainment from 11 November 2009.

Dr Who (Colin Baker) – BBC Prime, 4 April 1993

The station transmitted via the IntelSat satellite, broadcasting on frequency 601 27.5º west, at 10,995 and 11,155 gigahertz.

It was the BBC's first entertainment channel available via satellite and cable across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, broadcasting 24 hours a day.

BBC Prime aired a selection of BBC as well as ITV programming.


TRANSMISSION

We are not sure when Doctor Who started on this station. For a time episodes aired twice on Saturdays, with the following episode later the same day – e.g. an episode would air at 1.05am, then repeated at 10.00am, with the next episode on at 5.30pm the same day. Sometimes, the early morning episodes were not available in Africa.

It's unclear exactly when it was that the Doctor Who run ended on BBC Prime.

BBC Prime was available in the following countries, some of which also had previously aired Doctor Who on their own domestic stations:

(And no doubt many others….)


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EUROPE

As noted above, several European countries were able to receive Super Channel and BBC Prime, but one digital satellite station was established solely for the Scandinavian market:

TV4 Science Fiction logo

TV4 SCIENCE FICTION

TV4 Science Fiction is a satellite and cable television channel dedicated to the science fiction genre owned by TV4 AB. It was launched on 29 February 2008, and was broadcast to Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.


TRANSMISSION

TV4 SF screened all the available serials from the first seven Doctors. Episodes screened three times daily, usually early evening, just after midnight, then around 3.00am the following morning. It would appear that Doctor Who was part of the regular schedules since launch date in February 2008.

By May 2008, the Jon Pertwee stories were screening. By August, they had reached the Tom Baker stories, starting with Robot from the first Friday of that month.

By March 2009, the Sylvester McCoy stories were screening.

The series later moved to TV4 Guld (TV4 Gold):

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LATIN AMERICA

HBO OLE

Doctor Who aired briefly on this Latin America station:


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AUSTRALIA

Doctor Who screened on Australia's FOXTEL / UKTV from 1 August 1996.

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Links

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